Bottles and jars for containing food are necessarily closed by lids which are tightly threaded on. This is a necessary function to protect the contents from leakage into the jar of harmful substances. In many situations, such as for baby foods, the packaging operation leaves the inside of the jar under a negative pressure in order to secure the tightness. This adds to the force necessary to release the jar. In fact, it is a solid surface to surface contact under substantial compressive load.
Consumers, especially women and new mothers often lack sufficient strength in their hands and wrists to exert the necessary torque on the lid. This is further complicated by the small height of the lid, which provides little area to be gripped. Besides, this area is usually smooth and circular.
This situation has not gone unnoticed, and the market is replete with devices to give some advantage to the person who seeks to open the container. These extend from simple sheets or cones of conformable material to make the grip more comfortable, to plier-like gripping devices that require a squeeze, but also provide leverage. All of these have advantages and disadvantages, but usually they will in fact assist a person to open the jar.
In view of the above, one can reasonably and logically ask why another opener is needed, and whether it can provide any overall advantage beyond what already exists. The applicant herein believes he has done so by providing a small, conveniently applied opener which inherently grips the lid and which in its preferred embodiment includes an abutment readily engaged by the thumb or a finger to exert an additional torque.
It is an object of this invention to provide an opener of relatively small and elegantly simple construction which can be molded to shape and readily used.